83 / 142
; 1929]
The Gazette of the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland.
33
libri •••cl !!r:
APPOINTMENTS.
•
-'-
,Mr. Esmonde A. Power, Solicitor, Castlerea,
has been appointed County Registrar for the
County of Roscommon, .in
room of Mr.
William Early, resigned.
Mr. 'George 'Lynch, State Solicitor for the
County of Leitrim, has, in addition, been
appointed State Solicitor for the County of
Sligo, in room of Mr. John R. McCarthy,
appointed County Registrar for the County
of Sligo.
THE LEGAL PRACTITIONERS
(QUALIFICATION) BILL.
A Special General Meeting of the Society,
summoned by the Council to consider the
Legal Practitioners (Qualification) Bill, 1928
(as amended in Special Committee of the
Bail), was held on Friday, the 8th February,
in
the Molesworth Hall, Dublin.
The
President (Mr. E. H. Burne) in the Chair.
There were one hundred and eighteen
members present, including representatives
of Sessional Bar Associations throughout the
,
Saorstat deputed to attend and represent
their Associations.
The Bill proposes to enact that persons
seeking admission
to
the Solicitors' pro
fession, who are under the age of fifteen years
on the first day of October, 1929, shall not
be admitted as Solicitors unless before
admission they satisfy the Chief Justice that
they possess a competent knowledge of the
Irish language, which expression is defined
by the Bill to mean " such a degree of oral
and written proficiency in the use of the
language as is sufficient to enable a legal
practitioner properly to conduct the business
of his clients in the Irish language."
The Bill makes the subject of Irish to be
compulsory at the Preliminary, Intermediate
and Final Examinations of the Society for
those who are under fifteen years of age on
the first of October, 1929.
Resolutions urging opposition
to
the
further progress of the Bill were read from
the Southern -'L4$ 'As'sdoiafti'on,' /Cork, and
from
the Sessional Bar Associations of
Counties. Tipperary,, Louth, Meath, Kilkenny
and Waterford:
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Resolutions suggesting that amendments
to the Bill be sought were read from the
Sessional Bar Associations
of Counties
Carlow, Wexford and Kildare.
The following resolution was moved and
seconded :—
'' That this Special General Meeting of
" the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland,
" summoned by the Council to consider
" the proposals contained in the Legal
" Practitioners (Qualification) Bill, 1928,
" (as amended
in Special Committee),
" desires to place on
recordthat the Society
" is opposed to the
Bill.sofar as it affects
" the Solicitors' Profession, and instructs
" the Council to use every possible effort
" to secure its rejection."
To this resolution the following amend
ment was moved and seconded :—
" That the Incorporated Law Society of
" Ireland, while recognising the legal status
" accorded
to
Irish
as
the National
" language, with its necessary results in
" the life and business of the people, and
" while undertaking to apply the principles
" enunciated in
the Legal Practitioners
" (Qualification) Bill, 1928, in the spirit as.
" well as in the letter in connection with
" the professional education of Solicitors*
" apprentices, strongly deprecates the fact
" that this Society was not first asked to
" apply those principles,
the
tone
of
" distrust of this Society evinced in the
'' said Bill and the tendency in a degree to
" take the training of aspirants to our
" profession out of our hands, and demands
" that such amendments as shall be in
" accordance with the dignity of this pro-
" fession may be made in the Bill."
The amendment was put and rejected,
eight only voting in favour of it.
The
resolution was put and adopted, with eight
dissentients.